Isaiah 24:1

ESV Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

NIV See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants—

NASB Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, twists its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.

CSB Look, the Lord is stripping the earth bare and making it desolate. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants:

NLT Look! The Lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people.

KJV Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

NKJV Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste, Distorts its surface And scatters abroad its inhabitants.

What does Isaiah 24:1 mean?

Chapters 13–23 of Isaiah contained a series of prophecies about the Lord's judgment against various nations. Those judgments were mostly brought about through the Assyrian war machine. They conquered one nation after another, especially those who dared to rebel against them.

Now Isaiah prophecies about a judgment that will impact the entire world at once. Scholars have sometimes referred to chapters 24—27 as the "Apocalypse of Isaiah." The section certainly seems to be set in the end times. In this passage, the Lord judges the world before bringing all the nations under the rule of the Messiah from His throne in Jerusalem.

The chapter begins by declaring that the Lord will one day "empty the earth," or lay it to waste, and make it a wasteland. God will destroy the face of the earth and scatter the people who remain. The root word for "scatter" in Hebrew is puwts. This is the same word used for the dispersal of the earth's population from the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:9). The suggestion here is of mass migrations as people flee from disaster.

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